Big Brother 2009 (UK) - Format

Format

Further information: Big Brother (UK)#Current format

The format remained largely unchanged from previous series. Housemates were incarcerated in the Big Brother House with no contact to and from the outside world. Each week, the housemates took part in a compulsory task that determined the amount of money they were allocated to spend on their shopping; if they passed, they received a luxury budget and they were allocated a basic budget if they failed. Housemates were instructed to nominate two fellow housemates for eviction each week. This compulsory vote was conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room and housemates were not allowed to discuss the nomination process or influence the nominations of others. On Day 68, Big Brother changed the rules to allow housemates to discuss nominations until further notice. The two or more housemates who gathered the most nominations per week faced a public vote and the housemate receiving the most votes was evicted from the House on the Friday and interviewed by Davina McCall. Housemates could voluntarily leave the House at any time and those who broke the rules could have been ejected by Big Brother.

In a change from previous series, Channel 4 announced that it would no longer donate any of its income from the premium-rate telephone lines, by which viewers vote for whom they would like to see evicted or win the programme, to charitable organisations. The broadcaster said that the current economic downturn is to blame for this decision and that the change would bring Big Brother into line with other programmes of its kind, such as The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The format of the live eviction interview programme was altered for this series. Unlike previous series in which McCall interviewed evicted housemates by herself, she was instead joined by two guest panellists to "interrogate" the evictee. Panellists included former housemates, journalists, psychologists, and fans of the programme. A new rule was added to the programme at the start of the series; "fake romances" were not permitted.

Name	Age	Hometown	Source
Beinazir Lasharie	28	London
Saffia Corden	27	Nottingham
Sophia Brown	26	London
Cairon Austin-Hill	18	London
Angel McKenzie	35	London
Sree Dasari	25	Hatfield
Kris Donnelly	24	Shrewsbury
Karly Ashworth	21	Fife
Kenneth Tong	24	Edinburgh
Tom Oliver	27	Northampton
Noirin Kelly	25	Dublin
Isaac Stout	23	Cleveland, Ohio
Hira Habibshah	25	Dublin
Freddie "Halfwit" Fisher	23	Market Drayton
Bea Hamill	24	Bristol
Marcus Akin	35	London
Lisa Wallace	41	Birmingham
Rodrigo Lopes	23	Leeds
Charlie Drummond	22	Newcastle
David Ramsden	28	Dewsbury
Siavash Sabbaghpour	23	London
Sophie "Dogface" Reade	20	Cheshire